Part 1: Who Was My Maternal Great-Grandmother Lucy Jane Lamb Willis?

Part 1: Introduction and Preface

I am glad that I did not live in an earlier time when my ancestors lived in the 1800s or before, or in the early 1900s. I believe they led difficult and challenging lives. However, I would have enjoyed learning about my four sets of great-grandparents from their children, my two sets of grandparents, or my parents and aunts or uncles as I was growing up. I missed that opportunity from migrating a lot with my three families: as a child, in a first marriage with three children, and in a second marriage with six children, their spouses, 16 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren.

There are wonderful things to be said about moving away from the place where our great-grandparents lived, and that was the case for almost all of my great-grandparents’ children, my grandparents and my great uncles and great aunts, except for a few of the great uncles and aunts, especially those in my maternal grandparents’ families who did not migrate much out of Anderson, Houston, Smith, Montgomery, Jasper, and Harris Counties, all in the part of Texas known as “East Texas.” In a different sense, those descendants who still live in “East Texas” or close to “East Texas” may know their relatives (cousins or aunts and uncles if still living) or may know where their ancestors lived and are buried.

The migration “bug” has been a part of all of our country’s family heritage and mine, also. My maternal grandfather’s ancestors, the Grays and the Williams, came to Anderson County in the 1840s and 1850s. My maternal grandmother’s ancestors, the Willises and Streetmans as  in-laws, came with other families from Calhoun County, Florida in the early 1900s and settled in Houston County.

The Cook, Willis, and Streetman families came by covered wagon from Calhoun County, Florida, close to the Florida Panhandle to Houston County in East Texas. about 1909. The photograph of the covered wagon train was found in earlier digital pictures as though it was documented with this journey. However, the photograph is not documented and new writings of one of the Willis children in the possession of John R.  Streetman indicates the families also traveled by train, and possibly by ship to come to Texas. 

 My maternal grandmother’s parents came to Houston County, Texas about 1909 according to a Grapeland, Texas newspaper article that was reprinted 50 years later with 12 of their living children. 

One son, George Washington Willis, was born in Florida in 1890 and died there three years later in 1893. The youngest daughter, Lois Inez Willis, was the only child who was born in Texas  in 1910 in Houston County.

Hand drawn map of NW Houston County showing Antrim Cemetery where Lucy Jane Lamb Willis, husband John Pinckney Willis, and son Charles Dewey Willis are buried as well as many other pioneers who settled in the Antrim Community, also known as Pleasant Hill, 10 miles NW of Grapeland, Houston County, Texas. Elkhart in Anderson County is also shown on the map as that was an area where some of the Willis children lived in their later lives.

As a genealogist who tries to only record information that can be documented with resources, like birth, marriage, and death certificates, death records, family Bibles, U.S. and state Census records, dated and identified photographs, cemetery headstones and records, church records, my story may seem “dry” to some, but I hope with this report that more of our family members will learn about our ancestors to love and appreciate even more the lives they lived.

I am very thankful for our Willis, Streetman, Gray, and Williams family relatives who have been very sharing with their information, photographs, pedigrees, documents, and friendship through Facebook, Ancestry, Findagrave, Rootsweb,  emails, and personal visits.

Some photographs come from my late Aunt Azalee Gray Snow and her son David Lusky Snow’s collections. Most photographs come from my Second Cousin Once Removed Tom Streetman and his Uncle, Second Cousin John R. Streetman who also provided me with wonderful pedigree charts from My Brother’s Keeper software. Second Cousin Ivey Maurice Brinson has been my friend the longest since I became a serious fulltime genealogist in 2007. He and I met in Cleveland to visit my maternal grandparents’ home, their cemetery, and to visit with a neighbor across the road from their residence. Thank you, all, and more that I did not name here who have enriched my life as a family historian and genealogist.

Be sure and go to read Part 2, 3, and 4 in newer posts.